Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1887-02-03
THE RITE OF JoHvR
An Awful Sacrifice Made by Fanaticai
Women In Old India

A repetition of the Johur 'ordeal
has occurred in a Brahmin village near
Neemuch, in Bengal, the object being
to avoid the Tonk Durbar assessment.
The two victims calmly ascended the
Suneral prye, and bravely met death.
The villagers afterward took their
charred heads to Odeypore. Neemuch
is town of British contonment in
the territory of Gwalior, and is situ-
ated at q short distance from the
boundary separating that tract of
country from the State of Odeypore, in
Rajpootana 1t is just where one would
expect the Johur to take place, if any
where; for it is essentially Rajpoot
rite, like the sacrifice of widows and
infants. The present case is remark
able one: for .Johur, in past history,
was never used to avoid assessment,
and the telegram does not say whether
the victims are male or female.
Johur Is an awful rite. A whole
tribe may become extinct by it, as is
seen by several instances recorded in
history of the Rajpoot States. What it
signifies is the burning of women to
save their honor The Rajpoot is pro-
foundly jealous of the honor of his
women, and to prevent their falling
into the hands Of conquerors, then to
be dealt with as was often the case in
the wars with the Mahometans, he has
recourse to the Johur-that Is to say,
the immolation of every female of the
family, And the Raipoot woman
gladly embraces such a refuge from
pollution; or even il she were not in
fear OF being forced away as a captive,
she would prefer it to living ON as q
widow.
The loss of battle or the capture of
a city during the Mahometan inva-
sions was usually the time when this
dreadful rite was practiced. At the end
of the famed siege of Cheetore, the
ancient capital of the Rama of Odey-
pore, by Ala-uddin, in 1903, the Rajpoot
chief, after an arduous day, passed the
night in pondering the means by which
he might save from the general de-
struction one at least of his twelve
sons. Eleven of them fell during the
next few days, and when but one son
remained to the Rama, he proclaimed
the Johur. The funeral prye was
lighted within subtcrrancan chambers
where the suns rays had never en-
tered, and the defenders of Cheetore
beheld the queens, and their own wives
and daughters to the number of severa'
thousands, pass in procession tn IN,
fire. The beautiful Pudmani, the con
sort of Rama, who was believed to b,
the chief object OF attraction for tn
conquering Tartar, came last in tn
.hrong. The door of the cavern
;losed; the fires ragged within; tn,
honor of the Rajpott women wa,
saved. When afterwards Ala-uddir
entered the capital on the death of thu
Rama and his surviving son, who fel
in the conflict, he found it strewn with
the bodies Of its defenders, while smoke
yet issued from the rccesses where thu
women had perished.
In the Johur on the occasion OF
Fir0z Shah's attack upon Jessulmir
some years after the event above
described, 5000 females were de
stroyed.
The Johur was practiced not only
when the foe was the lustful anC
bloodthirsty Tartar, there are also
instances of 1t in the intertribal wars
of the Rajpoots. Numerous inscrip.
tions on stone and on brass, according
to the arch@ologists, record rs the first
token Of victory the captive wives OF
the foe, and the law of Manu- with re.
gard to female captives in war is analo
gous to those of Moses and Mahomet
on the same point.